Wikipedia went down in at least three countries on Wednesday (July 4) in a protest at an upcoming European Parliament vote on a highly disputed law that could make online platforms legally liable for copyrighted material put on the web by users, ST reported.

In Spain, Italy and Poland, an explanatory, protest statement about the upcoming vote came up when the online encyclopeead of the usual web page on whatever celebrity, legal case or historical event users had searched for.

"The directive would threaten online freedom and would impose new filters, barriers and restrictions to access the web," Wikipedia Spain said in its statement.

"If the proposal was approved in its actual version, actions like sharing news on social networks or accessing news via a search engine would be more complicated on the Internet."

It added that Wikipedia would be "at risk" and asked users to phone their MEPs.